March Salon; and Pood
March 29, 2006
10:10 a.m., MT

Music: 'Piggyback Ride', Billy Harvey

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, Tom Ender worked his webby magic and posted the March issue of Sunni's Salon. Sorry that it's a little late, but we hope you find it worthwhile. And it's our one-year anniversary issue! Don't worry, we didn't do the online equivalent of a restaurant's obnoxious happy-birthday song—it's mostly the usual look at individualistic, pro-freedom culture. Your feedback is welcome.

It's been too long since I promised Nick a recipe for Greek lemon chicken and salad, so I'll deliver on that now too. It's behind the curtain, though, so those uninterested in pood won't be bothered.

I first came across a recipe for Greek lemon chicken in Jeff Smith's book The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines. I've not cooked a lot from it, but nevertheless I recommend it highly because all the recipes I have tried have been very good; and also because his commentary and general cooking information are enjoyable and quite helpful. I've modified his recipe in lots of ways over the years; it's pretty tolerant. Having enjoyed an authentic Greek restaurant throughout graduate school, I think that's where I learned about Greek salads ... and it was only a matter of time before I hit on the idea of combining Smith's chicken recipe and the salad to create a wonderful summer entrée. For those unfamiliar with my cooking style, measures are approximate; experiment to find the proportions that tingle your tastebuds best.

Greek Lemon Chicken and Salad

For the chicken marinade and salad dressing:
1 C. good quality olive oil
Juice of 4-6 lemons
2 T. (1/8 C.) dried oregano
1/2-1 t. salt, or to taste
1/4-1/2 t. pepper, or to taste

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat

For the salad:
lettuce (I like a combination of iceberg, romaine, etc., but nothing really exotic)
1-2 ripe tomatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
2-6 green onions, chopped fairly small
1-2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into bite-sized slices
4-8 oz. feta cheese (preferably purchased in chunk form)
good quality whole black olives (optional; also good as a garnish)
pepperoncini (optional garnish)

Combine all ingredients for the marinade and salad dressing, adjusting to suit your taste. The general proportion is two parts oil to one part lemon juice, but you may desire more lemon flavor. (Salt will take the edge off the lemon's acidity without diminishing its bright flavor, so don't be squeamish about using a good amount of it.) Mix well.

Place the chicken breasts in a nonreactive casserole dish or pie pan; cover with marinade and turn once or twice to coat well. Cover dish and refrigerate for at least one hour (but not longer than six hours, as the acid will start to cook the chicken and adversely affect its texture). Turn breasts occasionally while marinating. Set the rest of the marinade aside for use as the salad dressing.

To cook chicken, either grill on a medium-hot grill or in a skillet at near-high heat. (Cast iron is excellent for this.) Once both sides of the breasts have been seared (generally between 2-4 minutes), turn heat down to allow internal cooking without burning the exterior. Cook for an additional 4-6 minutes, turning once or twice, just until done (a very small amount of pink inside is okay, as the internal heat will continue to cook the chicken a bit after it's removed from the heat). If using a skillet, the pan juices can be reduced—along with the remaining chicken marinade, as it's unsafe to be consumed uncooked. If using a grill for the chicken, reduce the chicken marinade in a small saucepan. This sauce is great over the chicken; we also like it over rice, which is a good side dish to complete the meal.

Prepare salad vegetables shortly before mealtime. Combine them, and crumble feta cheese over them. Toss to mix well.

To serve:
This meal is highly flexible; you may serve each person a whole chicken breast and allow each to choose whether to place it atop the salad or not. To stretch the meal, you may:

• slice the cooked breasts and place a few slices atop plated salad portions (reserve extras for seconds)


• chunk the chicken breasts and place in a serving dish; pass salad and chicken separately, allowing each person to serve himself


• combine chunked chicken with the salad, drizzle with the dressing, and toss well to combine (not recommended unless you're certain there won't be leftovers)

Notes: The lemon-olive oil dressing is excellent as a general salad dressing, and keeps very well covered and refrigerated. While not authentic, additional spices can be added to good effect; minced garlic and some thyme are excellent choices. Basil is nice too, but can easily dominate. Similarly, adding green or red pepper chunks to the salad make nice variations.
It should be obvious that this recipe depends upon fresh ingredients. I've tried reconstituted lemon juice, and it was an utter failure in my opinion. If you're going to bother with this recipe, fresh lemon juice is essential. Vine-ripe summer tomatoes are best; once in the middle of winter, I made this and used diced canned tomatoes instead. It was acceptable, but I think I prefer the salad without tomatoes over doing that again. Dried herbs work very well, but if you have fresh, by all means use them. Start with about 1/3 the quantities called for and adjust as needed to suit your taste.
Similarly, freshly ground pepper really makes a difference here. If you like pepper, a coarser grind of pepper adds a nice dimension to the meal.

Sunni

Comments: 2 people have contributed to the conversation

On Wednesday, March 29th, at approximately 12:23 p.m. Mountain time, Jorge said:

Sounds delicious! Next time I make chicken I'll try it.

Off to read Sunni's Salon.

On Thursday, March 30th, at approximately 11:06 p.m. Mountain time, Nick said:

That looks like a tasty meal and I'll have to try cooking it sometime.

Thanks for posting it!

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